Transcript of Special Briefing on Prime Minister’s visit to Italy and UK by Foreign Secretary, October 28, 2021
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: A very good afternoon to
all of you. Thank you very much for joining us today on this special
media briefing that we have for you. As you know, Honorable Prime
Minister is scheduled to leave later tonight for first Italy, Rome and
then to the United Kingdom, Glasgow. We have the privilege of having
with us here, Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary to give us
a sense of what the visit is about and what we can expect, also take
some questions. I know you have a lot of interest in these visits. We
also have the privilege of having with us Srinivas Gotru, Joint
Secretary (UNES) who deals with the climate change aspect of this. So
welcome once again. I would request Honorable Foreign Secretary to
perhaps say something in the beginning to give us a sense of where we
are and then we will open the floor for few questions. Sir the floor is
yours.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Namaskar and Good
Afternoon to all our friends from the media. This briefing is about the
Prime Minister's travel to Rome and Glasgow for two important
international conferences, the 16th G20 Summit and the World Leaders
Summit of COP26. Prime Minister will be in Rome, Italy from the 29th to
31st of October. He will reach Rome on 29th morning, and he will depart
from Rome on the evening of 31st October for Glasgow. He would be in
Rome to attend the G20 summit at the invitation of the Prime Minister
of Italy His Excellency, Mr. Mario Draghi. This would be Prime
Minister's 8th G20 Summit. He has already participated in seven G20
Summits before this. You're aware that the summit last year hosted by
Saudi Arabia was held virtually because of the COVID 19 pandemic. The
last in-person summit that the Prime Minister had attended was in Osaka
in June 2019.
Italy's theme for this presidency is ‘People, Planet, Prosperity’, it
actually comes from the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development.
There are five P's here, but Italy has chosen to retain the three P's
as being the theme for the G20 Summit. And the focus of Italy is on
recovery from the pandemic, and strengthening global health governance,
economic recovery and resilience, climate change and energy transition
and sustainable development and food security. India fully supports the
priority areas chosen by Italy and the government to tackle the global
financial crisis of 2008. It responded effectively to the crisis, thus
becoming the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
Since then, the G20 agenda has gradually expanded to include a number
of issues of socio-economic importance, with strong emphasis on
achievement of sustainable development and climate goals.
Today, the G20 represents approximately 80% of the world's GDP, 75% of
global trade, and 60% of the world's population. Thus, it is fitting to
say that over time, the G20 has emerged as not only the premier global
forum for international economic cooperation, but also an important
platform to exchange, innovate and deliberate on policy issues that
have a direct and tangible impact on the quality of life of our
citizens, and this could be in the areas of global financial stability,
sustainable finance, infrastructure, health, food security, education,
labour, employment, energy and climate change, digital economy, women's
empowerment, and innovation and this is just to name a few. The G20’s
success and continued relevance can be measured by its immediate
response to the COVID 19 pandemic and its focus on sustainable and
resilient economic recovery from the pandemic.
As a founding member of the G20, India has always been a proactive and
positive player in its processes, speaking not only for itself, but
also for the larger developing world. We are one of the few developing
countries that are a part of the G20. We have strongly advocated the
full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the
Addis Ababa action agenda, and the Paris agreement among other
international commitments. We have also been a strong voice in seeking
reform of the multilateral system, including global health governance
architecture with the WHO at its centre, the global trading system with
the WTO at its core, and international financial architecture, to make
the system more responsive, inclusive and representative and reflective
of contemporary realities.
Let me spend a few minutes to go over the focus areas of the upcoming
G20 Summit along with India's position, contribution in each of these
agenda items. Might find them a little lengthy, but the idea is to make
sure that we respond to any queries that you have pre-emptively. As I
mentioned earlier, the thrust of the upcoming summit will be on
economic and health recovery, climate change and sustainable
development. We are now close to the second year of our dealing with
the pandemic. Obviously, the devastation it has caused cannot be
overstated. It is therefore not surprising that the Italian presidency
has kept its focus on recovery, and of course, economic and health
recovery both. They have already set the stage for an ambitious agenda
on global health governance, with a parallel focus on recovery from the
ongoing crisis in preparing for the future health crises that may
emerge.
We have been a strong advocate in the G20 for supporting equitable and
affordable access to COVID-19 disease control tools, including
vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, through technology transfer,
diversification of supply chains and production hubs. As a result of
our efforts, the G20 has recognised that extensive vaccination is a
global public good. And I have to again emphasise that this has been
our contribution in the G20 Lexicon that would be evident at the
summit. At the same time, we have used the G20 platform to make a
strong case to strengthen and reform the WHO led global health
governance architecture. India supports ongoing efforts to create
mechanisms for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response,
including the mobilisation of Global Financing for this purpose and for
addressing the existing gaps, better coordination between stakeholders,
better management of common resources to effectively deal with future
pandemics.
You may recall that it was the initiative of Prime Minister Shri
Narendra Modi that to the Saudi presidency convened an extraordinary
summit to the G20 on the COVID-19 situation last year. In fact, the G20
has primarily met on economic and financial issues and the Prime
Minister noted that this was the first time the G20 actually met to
consider humanitarian issue. And I think that has stayed with the G20
and that is a new element of working for the global common good, which
has been one of the important areas of the vision of the Prime Minister
and what India has proposed at international fora.
Now, one major outcome of that Saudi Arabian hosted Summit, as we would
recall is the DSSI or what is known as the Debt Service Suspension
Initiative. One of the most tangible outcomes. More than 45 countries,
these are developing and least developed countries, have been provided
liquidity relief amounting to over $5 billion as a result of this
decision taken by the G20. It has helped countries focus their
resources on addressing the socio economic impact of the pandemic.
India has supported the extension of the Debt Service Suspension
Initiative until the end of December this year.
The G20 has also played an important role in orchestrating global
response to the pandemic. India chairs the G20 framework working group,
which has been tasked with formulating the G20's economic response to
the pandemic. This has provided us with a unique vantage point for
influencing the manner in which global economic response is being
designed. Our work is ensured that countries especially advanced
economies, take into account the spillovers of domestic policy actions
so that the impact of these actions on the rest of the world is
minimised. We have been particularly careful in ensuring that there is
no premature withdrawal of support and the most vulnerable sections of
the population which have been the most severely hit by the pandemic
are provided necessary support as long as they need to recover from the
pandemic. We of course benefited from clear communications from the
Finance Ministries and Central Bank Governors about their policy
stances.
Further, India has also used the G20 platform to build international
cooperation to improve tax transparency, to fight illegal practices
such as tax evasion, tax avoidance, round tripping, base erosion and
profit sharing, beneficial ownership, money laundering, bribery,
corruption and other crimes. We have pushed for coordination on
international taxation, matters to address the mismatch between the
source of generation of profits and the jurisdiction where they're
taxed. The reform agreements reached i.e. the global minimum tax deal,
which you're familiar with will ensure that large multinational
companies pay a minimum effective corporate tax, stopping the race to
the bottom in corporate taxes by adopting a global minimum tax rate.
This will benefit India by tackling the shifting of businesses to low
tax jurisdictions or tax havens.
As the co-chair of the G20 anti-corruption working group, India has
also worked very closely with all G20 members to come out with some
strong and tangible outcomes, including G20 High Level Principles on
Preventing and Combating Corruption in Emergencies. India has
contributed significantly towards the five think pieces related to
asset recovery, information sharing, law enforcement cooperation,
technology and denial of safe havens. The important outcomes of these
think pieces have been included in the anti-corruption working group
action plan for 2020 to 24. Italy holds the presidency of the G20 as
well as the co-chairmanship of COP26. In other words, they are involved
with both summits, and as you know, these are both back to back
summits. The global agenda on climate change and energy transition is
the focus for both these summits. So, G20 will also consider climate
change and we move into more specialised focus on climate change at the
COP26. We have been supportive of the priority attached by the Italian
presidency to building international consensus to combat climate
change. We have made significant contributions to the discussions on
this issue within the G20 by strongly advocating developing countries
concerns and perspectives.
As I mentioned earlier, India along with other developing countries,
has pushed for the G20 to gradually expand its mandate to focus on
comprehensively meeting the sustainable development agenda. Thus, over
time, we have seen the G20 focus more strongly in issues of universal
health coverage, agriculture, food security and nutrition, quality
education and quality jobs, women's employment and gender equality and
digital inclusion. As a developing country, we have used G20 forum to
bring attention to these issues and build support and mobilise
resources for those who need them most.
This year, the Italian presidency convened a special session of the G20
Foreign and Development ministers on ‘Food Security and Nutrition’ in
June this year, and we ensured that the proposed policies and decisions
did not lose sight of the interests of small and marginal farmers, the
conservation of local food culture and to promote agro biodiversity and
ensure food security in a sustainable manner. This allows us to
complement the effort being undertaken domestically to end hunger and
malnutrition through our National Food Security Mission.
Digital focus has also been a strong point we have worked in the G20 in
line with our Digital India mission. Digital Inclusion Social Security
benefits by leveraging technology. The idea of data for development is
a strongly Indian idea instead of treating it as a tool for profit.
Discussions at the G20 will influence policies and standards in the
years to come and our voice has been on balancing the benefits of
technology along with potential risks.
There is unanimity in the G20 on building back from the pandemic by
focusing on job creation, skill development and I think this is an
important part of the overall discussions and the agenda that will be
there. Women's empowerment, increased participation in women's
workforce also for international travel, I think that is an important
point, resumption of international travel through mutual recognition of
national vaccine documents, this has been our proposal and there is
strong support within emerging market economies in the group in this
regard.
Let me stop on my G20 part other than to say that the G20 remains a
valuable forum for India's engagement with the major economies of the
world and setting the trend and norms for global economic development
and recovery. We will be joining the G20 Troika on the first of
December this year, and will continue to be a voice for the common
citizens of developing countries and emerging market economies in the
G20.
Let me move on to the COP26 part of the Prime Minister's travels. The
Prime Minister will be in Glasgow, United Kingdom to attend the World
Leaders’ Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties - COP26 to the United
Nations Framework conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It's rather
long, let's say nomenclature but nonetheless, I thought I should at
least mention it once. This is at the invitation of the Prime Minister
of the UK, His Excellency Mr. Boris Johnson.
COP26 was originally slated to be in 2020, deferred to 2021 in view of
the COVID situation. It will be held from the 31st of October to the
12th of November. And as I mentioned, it will be co-chaired by UK and
Italy. And over the course of these 13 days, meetings will collectively
discuss over a 100 agenda items, most of them would be highly technical
in nature. The high level segment of the COP26, which is where Heads of
State and Government are involved, titled the World Leaders’ Summit
will be held on the 1st and 2nd of November 2021 and is expected to be
attended by Heads of State and Government of more than 120 countries.
So fairly wide representation at this summit.
By way of background, the UNFCCC was concluded in 1992. It embodies the
global will and vision to combat climate change. For three decades the
UN has been bringing together almost every country in the world for
global climate change summits called the Conference of Parties. These
Conference of Parties provide opportunity for stocktaking, charting the
way forward to combat climate change. The last such meeting attended by
the Prime Minister was in Paris in 2015, which was when the Paris
agreement was concluded. 2021 marks the start of the implementation of
the Paris Agreement.
Under the Paris Agreement, all parties have targets in the shape of
nationally determined contributions for combating climate change. In
India, our own traditional ethos promotes living in harmony with
nature, values sustainable lifestyles. It forms an important part of
our comprehensive approach to the COP26. Despite our huge developmental
challenges, we are taking ambitious action on expanding clean and
renewable energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and biodiversity.
Today India is creating new records in collective effort for climate
adaptation, mitigation, and resilience and forging multilateral
alliances. We are among the top countries in the world in terms of
installed renewable energy, wind and solar energy capacity. Our
capacity for renewable energy has increased by more than 250% in the
last six or seven years and we are on course to achieve our target of
450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 that the Prime Minister
declared last year.
There are national schemes such as ROSHANEE, which is the energy
efficiency roadmap; UJJWALA which is the cooking gas mission; UJALA
which is the LED lighting ; PM KUSUM, which is the solar energy for
agriculture; Jal Jeevan mission is the drinking water supply mission.
Energy efficiency, LED lights, clean cooking fuel, tap water have
reached hundreds of millions of our citizens in the past few years. A
comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission with its emphasis on
generating and utilising green hydrogen will be a quantum leap in
tackling climate change. In his Independence Day address this year, the
Prime Minister has put forth the vision of India as a global hub for
green hydrogen production export in the coming 25 years.
First, of course, we take into account the fact that we represent 1/6th
of humanity. We are one of the large countries also in terms of
geographical space in the world. For us, it is not just the domestic
initiatives that we have taken, which is, I would say contributes
greatly to the overall global actions and climate change. But we've
also contributed to multilateral initiatives, in other words, global
initiatives to deal with the issue of climate change. These initiatives
are in the form of the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for
Disaster Resilient infrastructure, among the fastest growing
international organisation in the world, making important contributions
to create low carbon pathways for industry transition, climate
adaptation, enhancing infrastructure resilience, solar projects and
technology.
Essentially, at COP26, we will work to achieve completion of the Paris
Agreement implementation guidelines, mobilisation of climate finance,
actions to strengthen climate adaptation, technology development and
transfer and keeping the reach of the Paris Agreement of limiting the
rise in global temperature.
The Prime Minister will deliver the national statement at the World
Leaders’ Summit on 1st November, he will participate in leader’s level
events organised with the COP26 presidency around the themes of climate
change, mitigation, adaptation and building resilience, clean
technology, innovation and deployment. So there are several sessions
within the COP26 but there are also a number of side events. One of the
important events is the launch of the global Green Grids Initiative,
the One Sun One World One Grid of the International Solar Alliance. The
Prime Minister will also separately launch the Infrastructure for
Resilient Island States (IRIS), an initiative of the Coalition of
Disaster Resilient infrastructure for island countries. This is
primarily for small island developing states. This will be launched
with the two other chairs, the UK Prime Minister and the Australian
Prime Minister. It will also involve many world leaders who will be
part of that effort. And these events will have high level
representation from many countries and the UN. The Prime Minister will
also have several bilateral meetings on the side-lines of COP26,
including in Italy with the Prime Minister of Italy, who is the host of
G20 and at COP26 with the Prime Minister of the UK who's the host of
the COP26.
Prime Minister will be calling on His Holiness Pope Francis at the
Vatican, when he is in Rome, and he, as I mentioned, will be meeting
several other world leaders. Keep in mind of course, that beyond the
bilateral meetings that we are scheduling, this is work in progress.
Both these summits actually have a lot of roundtable interaction, so
you meet a lot of Heads of state and government even in the normal
course of attending these summits.
We are looking forward to a COP26 that would bring forth fair and
objective discussions and a balanced outcome. We hope that the COP26
will register path breaking advances on finance, technology transfer,
capacity building support. Achieving breakthroughs on these vital
issues will help foster a green and inclusive recovery. I will stop
here.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much, sir. I
think that was really a good comprehensive understanding not just of
the wonders of the visit, but also on the elements that are likely to
come up during these two very important summits. Now I know that there
are a lot of questions, so we'll probably take a group. Please
introduce yourself and the outlet so that we have it for record.
Manish Jha: Foreign Secretary, mai Manish Jha hun TV9 se, Jaisa ki
aapne kaha to Pradhan Mantri Vetican mein jab Pope se milenge to kya ye
one to one Meeting hogi ya delegation ke sath hogi aur kya Pradhan
mantri aur Pope ki kisi Vishay par baatcheet bhi hone wali hai ya kewal
courtesy bhaint hogi ye? (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate Translation)
Foreign Secretary, I am Manish Jha from TV9, as you said, when the
Prime Minister will meet the Pope in the Vatican, will it be a
one-to-one meeting or will it be with a delegation and will there be
talks between the Prime Minister and the Pope on any topic or will this
will be only a Courtesy call?
Akhilesh Suman: Sir I’m Akhilesh Suman from Sansad TV. When you are
telling about this One World One Sun One Grid launch, is it just
between India and UK or other countries will also participate in that?
It is about COP26 and other question about G20 that you are talking
about better management of future pandemics. What India has noticed as
mismanagement during this pandemic, can you tell us and will you raise
this question in G20?
Speaker 1: Sir, could we have some details on the bilateral meetings,
any of them been finalized at Rome and at Glasgow and the follow up
question to what Manish asked about the call on the Pope so, there were
lots of requests that the Pope should visit India, and he had visited
South Asia few years ago but not visited India. So will there be any
hopes of Papal visit anytime soon? Thanks.
Kadambini: I’m Kadambini from NDTV India. When we talk about better
management of future pandemics, would there also be a push for finding
out the origin of present pandemic in G20?
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir I think we can take
this round.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well, let me start with
the bilateral issue and many of the questions were on that. I have
mentioned some of the bilaterals, he will be meeting the chairs of both
the G20 and COP26 in a bilateral capacity. He'll be going to Italy so
he will meet the Italian Prime Minister, going to UK he will meet the
UK Prime Minister. He will also call on the pope as I said. Aur His
Holiness Pope ke saath kya discussions honge weh mein bata nahin paunga
abhi. Iss mein ye to jaroor saabit hai ki ye ek bahut hi mahatvpoorn
meeting hai. Prime Minister jab Rome ja rahein hain, Vatican ja rahein
hein to Pope ko milna jaroori hai wahan pe aur usmein mere khayal se
one to one hogi ya delegation level talks hogi, wo tay honge par
normally ye meetings mein kuch delegation member to hote hein dono
taraf se. (Answered in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I will not be
able to tell what will be the discussions between the Prime Minister
and His Highness Pope at this stage. Here it is definitely proved that
this is a very important meeting. When the Prime Minister is going to
Rome or Vatican, then it is necessary to meet the Pope there and in
that I think there will be one to one or delegation level talk, that
will be decided. But normally there are some delegation members in
these meetings from both sides. With regard to bilaterals, let me say
that besides the ones that I've mentioned, we are also looking at
meeting the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince who will be there, Saudi Arabia,
as you know, the immediate Past President of G20. We will be meeting
the next President to the G20, which is the Indonesian Presidency and
the President of Indonesia. There are a very large number of bilaterals
that are still being worked out, I will not be able to give you the
details now. But I think at the venue, and before the bilateral, we
will certainly provide a list of those that have been firmed up. But I
think you have to keep in mind as I said that there is scope for a
number of meetings, which are in the margins and within the conferences
themselves. And we have kept a room for those sort of meetings as well.
In terms of the management of the pandemic, I think this is an
important point of discussion in the run up, as you know, there has
been a health summit that the Italian Presidency hosted in May, earlier
this year. There's been a fair amount of discussion on how to deal with
the issue of both the current pandemic and future pandemics that may
arise, the Global Health architecture, how we can deal with it, the G20
is going to come up with very concrete, I would say outcomes on this
and you will have to look out for it, there is a suggestion to create
mechanisms that would cater to the requirements of future health
pandemics. Again, until this issue is fully decided I can't share with
you details of this but there are some fairly intensive discussions on
the sort of architecture that the G20 could create that could
supplement international cooperation, collaboration dealing with future
pandemics. The issue of the origin of the COVID virus has been a
subject of a fair amount of discussion in international fora. And as
you know, this issue is being dealt with by the WHO, and this issue
will continue to be addressed in the appropriate forums. I think I
would have covered most of the questions that have been asked in this
round.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir I think that covers
most of those things.
Archana Choudhary: Hello, this is Archana Choudhary from Bloomberg.
Could you say something more about this this mutual recognition of
vaccines proposal of India's and also what would be the criteria for
this recognition?
Rishikesh: Hello sir, Rishikesh from Sputnik News. Global economy
including Indian industries are suffering from chips shortages. And
most of the experts and even some agencies are saying that this issue
will persist over for at least two years. So, will there be any
concrete proposal from Indian side on how to tackle this semiconductor
chips shortage?
Brahma Prakash: Main Brahm Prakash hoon Zee News se, mera sawal ye hai
ki WHO ka is pandemic ki shuruaat se lekar jo ravaiya raha hai, pehle
WHO par aarop lage ki China mein jo origin tha wo sahee vakt par
jaanakaari nahin di. Ab Covaxin ko lekar jo WHO ka ravaiya hai, Covaxin
ke approval ko, jo bhaarateey vaccine hai, usko lekar kaee bhaartiye
experts keh rahe hain ki yeh Western interest ke chalte WHO ne ye
ravaiya apnaaya hai, jo deri ki ja rahi hai bhaaratiye vaccine, Covaxin
ko approval ke liye. To kya iss ko aap logon ne consider kiya hai? ye
mudda hoga agenda mein? (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate Translation)
I am Brahm Prakash from ZEE NEWS, my question is that what has been the
attitude of WHO since the beginning of this Pandemic, first the WHO was
accused that it did not give the information about origin as China at
the right time. Now the attitude of WHO regarding Covaxin and its
approval, many Indian experts are saying that this attitude has been
adopted by WHO due to western interest which is delaying the approval
of Indian vaccine, Covaxin. So have you considered this issue, whether
this issue will be on the agenda?”
Nayanima: Nayanima from ThePrint. Will we raise the issue of the TRIPS
waiver for COVID vaccine something that India had floated along with
South Africa at the WTO? Thank you.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: The last one, you want to
ask?
Srinjoy: Sir, you said there'll be a bilateral with Draghi. They have
been pushing this Leonardo case for quite a while, is that going to be
under discussion and is any kind of breakthrough partial waiver likely?
Secondly, this is also at a time when you are having a lot of
bilaterals in both countries. There is a considerable pressure coming
in terms of cross border incidents that has gone up recently. And there
is also a planned way to bring all this up. Will this be discussed in
bilateral meetings with friendly countries?
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well, let's start with
Archana’s question on mutual recognition of vaccines. As you know,
India has proposed to our partner countries, primarily countries that
Indian citizens normally travel to, that you recognise our vaccine
certification, and we will mutually recognise your country's vaccine
certification. Now the advantage of that is that as we keep adding new
vaccines to our, let us say stock of national vaccines, you don't need
to go to every country to try and get recognition. The certification
that we issue, you recognise its integrity, and we will give you mutual
treatment. I'm happy to say that a number of countries have already
agreed to that. So we have achieved some reciprocal arrangements with a
number of countries, we are working with all of our partner countries
to have similar arrangements, it will simplify international travel, it
will normalise international travel. It's an important objective the
G20, as I mentioned, to not only effect recovery in terms of health,
but also economic recovery. So business travellers, tourists, which
contribute to the recovery of economies will be greatly benefited from
this, let's say, simplified international travel regime that we are
proposing. And we have taken it up with the G20, we've taken it up
bilaterally, we've taken it up in plurilateral forums, we will continue
to advocate this as a means of better and easier access to citizens
travelling all over the world.
I think the question from Rishikesh was about chip shortages and
whether we will raise that issue, I think that is a valid point. We
have raised it in the past also in other meetings that we have had at
the summit level. Recently Prime Minister went to the United States,
the talk of the issue of resilient, sustainable secure, stable supply
chains was taken up, was discussed extensively with our partners. We
will continue to advocate this in our various meetings that we will
have. The idea is to try and ensure that there is a greater
preparedness for meeting such situations through greater collaboration
with our main partners and the international community.
"Zee News se aap ka sawal tha Covaxin approval ke bare mein, jaise aap
ko pata hai WHO ka ek jo Technical action group jo hai, jise TAG kehte
hein, ye regulatory group hai. Inki meeting hui thi 26 taarikh ko, us
meeting mein unhone kuch prashn puche the Bharat Biotech ko, jis pe
jaise hamein soochna mili hai, wo sab jawab Bharat Biotech jaldi se
jaldi WHO ko de degi. Mere khyal se ye jo Regulatory Group hai, ek bar
inke jo prashn achi tarah Respond ho jaate hein, to Covaxin ke liye
Approval bhi turant aana chahiye. Par aap ko ye samajh mein aana
chahiye ki ye Technical Group hai, Regulatory Group hai, emergency use
authorization ka request jo hai WHO ke saath Technical Considerations
pe hote hain aur hum badi carefully follow kar rahe hein ye jo
discussions ho rahe hein WHO mein aur hamein poori ummid hai ki Jaldi
se jaldi Covaxin ko WHO ki Approval mil jayegi (Answered in Hindi;
Approximate Translation) Your question was about Covaxin’s Approval, as
you know there is a technical action group of WHO, which is called TAG,
this is a regulatory group. They had a meeting on 26th, in that meeting
they asked some questions to Bharat Biotech, on which, as we have
received information, Bharat Biotech will give all the answers to WHO
as soon as possible. I think this Regulatory Group, once their
questions are responded well, then Approval for Covaxin should also
come immediately. But you should understand that this is a Technical
Group, a Regulatory Group, an emergency use authorization request which
is on Technical Considerations with WHO and we are following very
carefully. These discussions are happening in WHO and we sincerely hope
that Covaxin will get WHO approval as soon as possible.
With regard to Nayanima's question on TRIPS waiver, we have advocated
for technology transfer and diversification of supply chains and
production hubs to ensure affordable and equitable access to COVID-19
disease control tools. I'm happy to share that the G20 has recognised
extensive vaccination as a global public good. I mentioned that
earlier. And I think that is where a discussion in the G20 will be
relevant. Finally, I think Srinjoy’s question on Italy and the issue of
Leonardo, it is obviously as you know, there have been some issues
because of their listing by our Ministry of Defence. I understand there
have been conversations between us and Italy on this, in an attempt to
resolve some of the outstanding issues there. I'm sure we'll be seeing
more on this as we go along and as we have a meeting with the Italian
side.
Cross Border terrorism is an issue that we have raised with all of our
bilateral partners and interlocutors, it is a very important issue. It
was raised in Washington DC when the Prime Minister was there, and
undoubtedly it will be raised with those countries with whom this needs
to be flagged.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. Yes, please
there.
Kalol: Sir this is Kalol from the Hindu. The humanitarian situation in
Afghanistan is becoming extremely difficult every day. So what is India
going to bring to the table as far as Afghanistan is concerned at G20?
Is there a near future plan to engage Taliban also in a multilateral
manner?
Madhurendra: "Sir, Mein Madhurendra News Nation se, Mera sawal COP-26
ko lekar hai, COP-21 se lekar aur COP-26 tak 5 saal ka waqt nikal
chukka hai, lekin Paris convention ko lagu nahin kiya ja saka, doosri
taraf global warming lagatar badh rahi hai. Hum ye bhi jaante hein ki
jo Kyoto protocol tha 1997 ka, usmein bhi jo terms finalize kiye gaye
the use bhi lagu nahin kiya gaya. To kya ummeed rakhi jaye COP-26 se?
Kya mana jaye koi iss tarah ka nirnay iss forum pe liya ja sakega, jise
poori tarah implement karke jo global warming ke challenges hein aur
sustainable development ke challenges hein use poora kiya ja sakega ?
Mera doosra sawal G-20 se juda hai, ki hum jaante hein ki aatankwad ka
khatra sabse jyada Economic Development ke saamne hein, to kya aapko
lagta hai Taliban aur khas taur par Afghanistan se jis tarah ke
aatankwad ke roots iss waqt jo develop ho rahe hein us ki charcha hogi,
us ko le kar bhi koi thos Nirnay hoga? (Questioned in Hindi;
Approximate translation) Sir, I am Madhurendra from News Nation, Sir my
question is regarding COP-26, 5 years have passed since COP-21 and
COP-26, but Paris convention could not be implemented, on the other
hand global Warming is increasing continuously. We also know that the
terms which were finalized in the Kyoto protocol of 1997 were also not
implemented. So what to expect from COP-26? Is it to be believed that
such a decision can be taken on this forum, by implementing it
completely, the challenges of global warming and the challenges of
sustainable development can be met? My second question is related to
G-20, as we know that the terrorism is the biggest threat in the path
of economic development, so what do you think about the roots of
terrorism which are developing at the moment from Taliban and
especially from Afghanistan. Will it be discussed, will there be any
concrete decision regarding that too?
Sandeep Dixit: Sir, I’m Sandeep Dixit from the Tribune. First one is on
G20, we've been fighting for revision of IMF quotas. So is there some
kind of a finality now coming? We got a very small distribution once
upon a time and nothing since then. So are we moving on that? And on
COP 27, to add to Madhurendra’s question, the developed countries have
said that they would be able to raise the 100 billion dollars in
financing only after three years. So does that put a dampener on the
efforts of developing countries to meet their NDC and meet the
technology and other costs for that?
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Last question for the
round.
Smita Sharma: Hi, Smita Sharma. Just a follow up on the Afghanistan
question other than the G20 forum, given that they're actually facing a
famine situation right now. Is India planning to help with any kind of
green stocks? and the absence of Xi Jinping, you know, the biggest Co2
emitter, most environmentalists were also surprised that the PM decided
to actually be there in person. So how would that impact the absence of
the Chinese President on the forum?
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well I think the
humanitarian situation of Afghanistan was asked by more than one of our
friends here. G20 under Italian Presidency organised a special summit
level meeting on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. As you
know, our Prime Minister himself participated in that meeting. I think
our position was made clear that while on every issue, we believe that
the international benchmark set by resolution 2593 of the UN Security
Council has to be met. On the issue of humanitarian assistance, I think
we have been forthcoming because we realised that that assistance is
for the people of Afghanistan, and Prime Minister did offer to
contribute food grains to alleviate that situation. We did say that we
would like to see such assistance provided in a direct, unhindered and
unimpeded manner, and that its distribution also should be through the
UN or other independent agencies. But what is important is that we are
alive to the situation of the humanitarian needs of Afghanistan, and we
will be responsive to that situation, if the correct circumstances are
prevalent in doing so.
I think there was a question on whether Paris commitments are being
met, and I think both News Nation as well as Sandeep Dixit had raised
issues of financial commitments also, whether those are forthcoming. So
in the first place, of course COP21 in Paris did have certain
commitments that were to be fulfilled. I'm happy to say that India has
been one of the best performers in the G20 as far as meeting
commitments are concerned, we are well on our way to meeting our NDC
commitments, and even doing better than that. So from our perspective,
our commitments have been very much in place. Not only have we
committed to NDCs at Paris, we have also made unilateral, I would say
announcements that really set the benchmark much higher for us and for
other countries. As far as financial commitments are concerned, that is
a different issue because while it is correct that $100 billion, as
Sandeep mentioned, had been declared as an annual contribution towards
climate change efforts I think the problem is that we would like to see
such commitments converted into promises. The quantum of such financing
is also in our view, inadequate, you need much more financing in order
to reach the goals that have been set, the very ambitious goals that we
need to collectively meet at a global level in order to achieve the 1.5
degrees that we're talking about. And of course, the means of
delivering that financing also has to be made clear. So, green
financing, green technology are important factors in enabling the
world, particularly developing countries meet their commitments to the
goals established under our climate change discussions. This is
something that I'm sure will occupy the leaders, will occupy the
negotiators, and this is something that we expect to see some outcomes
on not only in terms of your commitments, in terms of NDCs at the
summit and what is called a sort of review of those commitments in
Glasgow, but also, I would say, sort of a review of the financial
backstopping that is very important for developing countries, small
island developing states, countries like ours that have a very, very, I
would say in terms of per capita emissions and in terms of the size of
our country, and the fact that we have some way to go before we peak in
terms of our own industrial development. That effort that we're making
in developmental terms to achieve what is important in climate change
terms has to be recognised and has to be supported through appropriate
financing and technology that has to be forthcoming from the
international community, in particular the developed world has to look
at how to make this something that is achievable and realizable, the
goals and targets that we set for ourselves.
So let me just try and put it in perspective that we are going to
Glasgow with a positive mind-set. India has always approached the issue
of climate change in a manner that is constructive. As I said, we have
not only set NDCs, we have set targets that far exceed the NDCs by
ourselves within our own country. And we have every intention to reach
it. I think in terms of our own performances, we have done much better
than many other countries. But that is not our gauge our gauge is
internal, we want to ensure that we have the conditions that are
necessary for us to achieve our own targets, and this is an important
objective for us for our own people. But we have also contributed to
the global framework in mitigating, adapting the effects of climate
change through the International Solar Alliance, through the coalition
of Disaster Resilient infrastructure, and building consensus within the
global community and how to achieve this. So I think our contribution
at Glasgow would be important, and we would certainly want to go there
to make the difference. But as I said, we would also expect that there
would be commitments that would be forthcoming from those countries
that have already peaked some time back, those countries that are
occupying a much larger carbon space as it is and who I think would
need to see how we can best work together in a spirit of collaboration
to achieve our common objective of humanity in meeting our climate
change objectives.
I think we did respond to the issue of cross border terrorism. The G20
agenda, of course, is an economic oriented agenda. It is important that
the issue of terrorist financing etc. is addressed. But as I said, what
is important is to see how issues like corruption, money laundering,
tax evasion, these are issues where G20 is most active, and we will
certainly be active there. But we will not be falling short in any way
on raising issues that are important to us, whether it is the issue of
cross border terrorism, whether it is the issue of terrorist financing
or any other terrorism related issues that impact the international
community, and ourselves.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. We'll just
take the last set of few questions.
Neval: Sir Neval from Sky News, sir you've talked about NDCs and we're
getting to our targets. The big breakthrough is committing to net zero
by 2050. Are we looking at India committing to net zero?
S.M.Asif: Mein S.M. Asif, In dino se, mera sawal hai ki Pradhan Mantri
ko Italy aur England ke daure ke bich mein kya Indian community ke
beech mein bhi koi interaction ki hai Programme. (Questioned in Hindi;
Approximate Translation) I am S.M. Asif from In dino, my question is,
is there any interaction program between the Indian community during
the Prime Minister's visit to Italy and England?”
Elizabeth: I'm Elizabeth with Mint. I just wanted to ask Foreign
Secretary since you mentioned that we have bettered our record where
the NDCs are concerned. Is it possible that we announced updated NDCs
at this conference, especially when you said that we would like to have
a constructive approach to the talks.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well we have one
question on net zero and one question on updated NDCs. But let me start
, Pehle aapake prashn ka main javaab doonga. Pradhan Mantri aapako pata
hai ki jahaan bhee jaate hain, bhartiye samudaay ke saath jaroor milte
hein, aur is baar bhee jab Italy jaenge aur UK jaenge, Glasgow mein
jaenge to bhaartiye samudaay ke saath jaroor mulakaat hogi. Covid ke
kaaran se restrictions hain to bade meetings ho nahin paenge, par
chhote groups mein meetings jaroor honge, aur circumstances ke hisaab
se jo meetings ho sakte hain wo jaroor honge, jo mujhe pata hai.
(Answered in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I will answer your
question first. Prime Minister, you know that wherever he goes, he
definitely mees the Indian community, and this time also when he will
visit Italy and UK Glasgow, he will definitely meet the Indian
community. If there are restrictions due to Covid, then large meetings
will not be held, but there will definitely be meetings in small
groups. And according to the circumstances, the meetings that can be
held will definitely happen, as far as I know.
As far as the net zero that Sky News had asked, you know there is a
global net zero and G20 will reflect that concept. And we certainly
support a global net zero. Global net zero means that those who have
peaked earlier will have to contribute to that those who have larger
emissions will have to look at in per capita terms, we'll have to also
keep that in mind. But obviously, every country has to make its efforts
to reach a global net zero. Whether we will specifically go into that
or whether we will have updated NDCs is something that we will have to
see. I cannot pre-empt our discussions and negotiations at COP26 at
this stage as my objective is only to give you a sense of our outlook,
in advance of our participation in these two important summits. What I
can only reiterate is that we will go there with a positive mind-set,
we will engage proactively on issues that involve climate change. We
already have nationally determined contributions that have been
registered at Paris, as I said, we almost achieved those targets, we
are well on our way to achieving those targets. And we will see whether
we need to in any way, review those, but whether it is net zero, or
whether it is revised NDCs that's not important, what is important is
that we will be a contributing factor in the global discussions at
COP26.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir, thank you. Thank you
very much Sir for all the details and a lot of questions that you took.
We appreciate very much the presence here of Shri Harsh Vardhan
Shringla, Foreign Secretary, as well as of Joint Secretary Srinivas
Gotru. Thank you for joining us. And stay tuned for further updates as
the Prime Minister's visit goes on. And we will certainly share with
you both through our video channels as well as our social media, the
details of the forthcoming visit.
Thank you again for being here. Good evening.
*****
